Gardaí seize ‘super-strength’ heroin

Gardaí believe they have taken most of the “super-strength” heroin linked to two deaths in Cork out of circulation.

However, there are fears of similar deaths in Dublin after a heroin addict was found dead in a homeless shelter in Ballymun on Friday.

Gardaí are investigating a possible connection between the three deaths after initial tests showed the heroin in all cases was of similar composition.

Prompted by the two deaths in Cork on Thursday and Friday, drugs squad officers mounted a series of coordinated raids on more than 16 addresses on the northside and southside of the city on Friday night. The blitz continued through the weekend.

They seized a small quantity of heroin which has been sent for analysis. Senior gardaí believe it is from the batch of super-strength heroin linked to the two deaths and eight hospitalisations.

There were no arrests as part of the operation.

“Our priority was to get this drug off the streets. Our investigations to trace the key players responsible for distributing the drug are continuing,” a senior Garda spokesman said.

It is believed the lethal batch was part of a larger consignment smuggled in to Cork in recent days.

Gardaí believe it had not been cut or diluted and that heroin users in Cork were not used to its high purity.

Gary O’Sullivan, 30, was its first victim. Originally from Togher, he was found unconscious in a flat at St Joseph’s View, Blackrock, Black Rd, on Thursday evening. It is understood there were needles and drug-taking paraphernalia at the scene.

Gavin Thompson, 26, from Gurranabraher, died the following morning after he was found in similar circumstances at an address on the Old Youghal Rd.

During the same period, seven men were treated in Cork hospitals for the side-effects of opiate abuse.

An eighth man who collapsed on a city street late on Friday night was also taken to the emergency department of Cork University Hospital for treatment following a suspected heroin overdose.

It prompted the HSE to issue a warning to opiate users across Munster.

Dr Chris Luke, a consultant in emergency medicine at CUH, said the spate of heroin-related deaths proves that Cork has now joined the ranks of major EU cities struggling with a range of hard-drug problems.

“The deaths should really make us reflect on the scale of the heroin problem in this city,” he said. “We have seen an exponential increase of the numbers of people using hard drugs here.

“Ten or 15 years ago, there was a stable drug-taking picture, with cannabis and ecstasy the main issues.

“Heroin was almost unknown and we’d see maybe one or two heroin overdoses a year. And they were often visitors to Cork, from Dublin or London.

“But now we can see two, three, or four heroin overdoses a day. We’ve now joined the ranks, we’ve come of age as an EU city with all the drug difficulties and epidemiology that comes with that. Every drug seems to be here now.”

Cork City Coroner’s Court is due to hear details next month of two heroin-related drugs deaths in the same flats complex over 24 hours last Christmas Day.

The latest heroin deaths come just a fortnight after two graduates died in Kinsale, Co Cork, after taking a deadly form of ecstasy.